It was Jan. 2, 2009, 1:16 left in the third quarter, when there was a seismic shift in the Rockets' world, when the tectonic plates opened up and swallowed an era.

The official play-by-play sheet simply says: Jamario Moon slam dunk.

Anybody who was watching at the Air Canada Centre or on TV knows it was the precise moment that Tracy McGrady quit on the Rockets.

Yao Ming knows it. You could read it all over his scowling face as he sat on the bench through the final embarrassing minutes of horrid game.

Rick Adelman knows it. You could read it between the lines of his post-game comments when he said he would not talk about any individual performances.

Ron Artest knows it. You could tell that a week ago when Artest dragged his sore and ballooning right ankle onto the court to gut out an overtime win against the Jazz when McGrady made himself a late scratch during the post parade.

Leslie Alexander knows it and Daryl Morey knows it and every one of McGrady's teammates knows it.

One could hope that Dikembe Mutombo was back in Houston watching and will arrive in Atlanta with his leadership in the form of a big stick.

Truth be told, it wouldn't make a difference, wouldn't matter. It would only elicit a few more whimpering excuses from McGrady and more disappointment down the line.

Oh, it was so much more than just 2-for-9 shooting and 4 points in 27 minutes. It was aimless shuffling around the court on offense and defense. It was standing five feet behind the 3-point line, feet rooted to one spot, and simply playing pitch and catch with the ball.

It was Moon driving in from the right side of the basket and seeing McGrady stop running, practically hold the door open and offering to carry Moon's books home from school as he went by for a dunk that would have been more contested in the pre-game layup line.

"McGrady could have made some kind of effort," said veteran play-by-play man Bill Worrell.

"You don't just give somebody an open dunk," said color commentator Matt Bullard.

For crying out loud, these guys are paid employees of the team and they had the guts and integrity to say out loud what everybody sitting at home and falling off their sofas knows.

It was the body language from the opening minutes of the game to the bitter, pathetic end that screamed out loud that McGrady would rather have been any other place on the planet than on that court with that team.

It is a waste of time and effort to go back over all of his empty promises and contradictions from the start of training camp or over his four-plus seasons in Houston.

Just say this: He is an extraordinary talent - T-Mac - who is capable of taking your breath away. Yet as a competitor - Tiny Tim-mac - he can be blown away in a gentle breeze.

This is not the first time that McGrady has revealed himself, having bailed out on the Raptors as an up-and-coming phenom and quit - flat-out admitting publicly that he didn't try - on the Magic to get himself traded out of Orlando.

Thus, it was only a matter of when it would happen to the Rockets. They paid him a sultan's fortune. They coddled him. They praised him. They made every excuse and accommodation for him.

After the Utah fiasco, he promised Morey and Adelman that he would increase his energy level and play hard. The general manager and head coach put their own egos aside and agreed to an unprecedented - and preposterous - notion that he would only have to play one game in back-to-back sets.

Then McGrady went out on Friday night (he's already planning to sit Saturday in Atlanta) and half-stepped it against the Raptors, never getting himself into the game, never finding a rhythm and, ultimately, walking out the back door on them.

This was more than just the latest in a sickly string of games where he's scored 12, 4, 11, 15, 7 and 4 points (8.8 avg.) and shot 20-63 (.317). It was the night when the Rockets organization - everyone from front office to the last player on the end of the bench - had their darkest fears about T-Mac confirmed.

Oh, the Rockets likely won't trade him away. They have themselves boxed in with his huge contract and his deteriorating body.

What they need to do at this point is move on without him. Turn the page on the McGrady Era. The team belongs now to Yao and Ron-Ron - a couple of guys who never shortchange you on effort - and a supporting cast that is pretty damn good.

If McGrady wants to rehab his sore left knee or run off to a retreat and get his chakras back in balance, let him. If he wants to return to the club somewhere down the road in a few weeks or few months and contribute a few - or a few dozen - big buckets in a playoff game, well, they'll be appreciated. But they won't be expected.

Because with 1:16 left in the third quarter on a Friday night in Toronto, Jamario Moon's red-carpet-escort dunk slammed home a point that some of the Rockets had begun to suspect. They can never truly count on T-Mac again. Ever.

he's a better follower than a leader so i'm willing to take a shot at him. his value is rock bottom right now and we all know dude's faking the injuries. Yea he had surgery and still has pain but its part of the rehab process as his doctors said but he feels its getting worse and its hurting too much and playing on it will worsen his injury. His "injuries" will disappear magically if he moves to a new zip code so if we are smart right now we should do odom/vlad or odom/luke for him

Swoop in right now nd get him on the cheap. If you can convince him to come off the bench (which shouldn't be hard with his no back-to-back thing), he'd be a heck of a weapon at the 2 or the 3 off the bench.

Yes, if healthy, he is an impact player... So did Jermaine O'neal, Gilbert Arenas, Yao Ming, Nene, Larry Hughes, Caron Butler, etc... He is always NOT healthy... I'm afraid if we pursue him, he will just warm the bench seats with DJ Mbenga...

I mean, dayam, at one point of his career, he was an offensive juggernaut... Now, he didn't even crack the All-Star rotation... The drop of his game is worse than Chris Mihm...

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."Karl Marx

Yes, if healthy, he is an impact player... So did Jermaine O'neal, Gilbert Arenas, Yao Ming, Nene, Larry Hughes, Caron Butler, etc... He is always NOT healthy... I'm afraid if we pursue him, he will just warm the bench seats with DJ Mbenga...

I mean, dayam, at one point of his career, he was an offensive juggernaut... Now, he didn't even crack the All-Star rotation... The drop of his game is worse than Chris Mihm...

may not be the 20ppg 7apg guy he was but he would be the 4th option

and hell if we got him without giving up odom or ariza and just luke, vlad, mihm we'd be borderline cheating

Yes, if healthy, he is an impact player... So did Jermaine O'neal, Gilbert Arenas, Yao Ming, Nene, Larry Hughes, Caron Butler, etc... He is always NOT healthy... I'm afraid if we pursue him, he will just warm the bench seats with DJ Mbenga...

I mean, dayam, at one point of his career, he was an offensive juggernaut... Now, he didn't even crack the All-Star rotation... The drop of his game is worse than Chris Mihm...

but the thing is...he's not injured this time. Dood's faking it...just a week or so ago he got a triple double with ease showing no signs of pain or any injury. He has given up on the team and he's making himself tradeable

but the thing is...he's not injured this time. Dood's faking it...just a week or so ago he got a triple double with ease showing no signs of pain or any injury. He has given up on the team and he's making himself tradeable